Welcome to Part Three of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated traffic generating machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part 1 of this article series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website, all you have to do is publish fresh content consistently to start driving traffic!)
In Part 2, we focused on critical setup decisions. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a website yet, how to set things up if you already have a website, and what to do if your website has been built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will look at the configuration stage of the traffic blueprint. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured in order to drive web traffic automatically whenever you publish web content to your web site.
WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Configuration
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Also, the business landscape is becoming ever more competitive and businesses are researching any and every advantage they can that can help you improve their performance online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage over the competition. With an expertly configured website, you have a flying start from the moment your site is launched.
Configuration Is The Difference
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a site that has been professionally installed and set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to take advantage of everything WordPress can offer.
Here’s one way to describe the difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a professional web presence plus an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only is extra labor required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special type of expert knowledge.
To illustrate this here’s a little story.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
All is running smoothly in the widget assembly plant when everything grinds to a sudden halt.
No one can figure out what’s gone wrong and so the manager decides to call in an expert to fix the problem.
The expert arrives shortly after being summoned and, without saying a word, heads immediately towards the main control box. After staring at the control unit for what seems like 2 minutes or so, the expert then produces a little hammer and makes a single tap near the left corner of the unit.
Immediately, everything springs back to life.
The floor manager is overjoyed as he thanks the expert, who leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the factory manager receives an invoice for the sum of $5,000.
Unable to contain his anger and bewilderment, the factory manager dials the expert. Why have they had been charged so much for so little time delivering such a minimal amount of work? He then requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrives on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive new traffic to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the gizmo factory stand to lose when the machines stopped working and no one on the business was able to get things up and running again? Did the expert not have the right to demand fair compensation for spending years acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that enabled him to quickly fix a potentially costly problem?
Similarly, if you could have your blog set up so all you ever had to do is publish new content and search engines, social sites like Facebook and Twitter and dozens of other online properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your website?)
Although experts often make complex things look easy, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site is more than installing a website and configuring settings for clients. It requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which plugins you need to install to get specific functionalities on your site.
- Which third-party accounts need to be set up to achieve desired results
- Which options you need to configure to ensure that things will function as you have imagined, etc.
(Driving new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
This stage of the WordPress traffic automation system is not so technically challenging, but it’s quite involved and time-consuming. This is because it’s not as easy as installing a solution, configuring some settings in your admin area … it’s all of this and so much more.
The configuration stage involves the integration of different components such as your web server, your web site, and various external sites and/or online services …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If we create a simple diagram of the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplistic diagram of the configuration phase)
Let’s examine what’s involved.
Configuring Your Web Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your webhosting account for site installation purposes. We’re talking about configuring settings in your server that affect how your website will handle all web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your web server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is welcome traffic. Some of the traffic your site will attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, requires evaluating your needs, planning for good and unwanted traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like integrating spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring domain and email forwarding, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After fine-tuning your web server settings and configuring these, the next step of the configuration phase is to set up a number of external sites.
External Sites And Services – Configuration
The purpose of choosing external sites is that all of your content should be published to one central location (your site) and from there, it will automatically get syndicated to other components of your web traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
After adding these external sites to your network, content pointing back to your site will be automatically added to search, social and aggregator sites. Your content and site will be given added exposure to new sources of traffic and new audiences.
Some of the sites and online platforms will need to be set up before configuring your site’s settings to speed up the process and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, here are just some of the accounts you will need to have set up before configuring your settings:
Google Search Console
(Google Search Console)
Google Search Console lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with useful data, tools and diagnostic reports about your website.
After setting up your account, you can use this information with web traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, marketing efforts, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine and social media referrers, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account and site details have been set up, you can add your account information to all of your web pages in WordPress using a simple plugin and send data instantly to other useful applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. Once your account and site data have been set up, use your information with web traffic settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress offers website owners the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you are planning to build a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides some great tools, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your web traffic system in Part Four of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new traffic to your site)
You will need your social media accounts set up in order to integrate these with your traffic generation system.
Once you have set up and configured everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and get new visitors to your site.
Make sure you have accounts set up with all the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can set up and syndicate your content to. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose those that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we discuss some of these tools in greater detail during the Automation phase).
(There are many social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Platforms, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of emerging technology platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free plans, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Distribute your content to social networks)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your social feed.
There are various sites and platforms that can be added to your own traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these, or to discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your server settings and set up accounts with third-party sites, it’s time to configure your WordPress site’s settings.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
Global Settings – WordPress
Your WordPress administration area contains a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Content entered into fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most powerful and frequently overlooked built-in traffic notification systems available to website owners …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings)
As described in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have specifically configured your settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the services entered into the Update Services box
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is available …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(Notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress!)
Download A Comprehensive List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site!
Click the link below to download a comprehensive list of reliable and authoritative ping services for your WordPress site or blog:
Download A List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site
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Note: If you need help setting up the list of ping services on your site, we recommend using a professional web services provider. You can find professional WordPress service providers in our WordPress Services Directory.
Reading Settings
This section affects how visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can have an influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could affect someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to view the rest of the content from summaries, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as traffic is concerned, however, the most important setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Normally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows WordPress to instantly ping the update services list whenever new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
Although discussion settings are mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to sites linked to from your posts, and to allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks). This can work for you, but it can also drive bad traffic in the form of SPAM comments …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to publish posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks Section)
Here are some of the ways permalink URLs can be configured …
(Configuring permalinks)
To learn more about setting up permalinks, see this step-by-step tutorial: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
WordPress Traffic Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that help to add almost every type of functionality imaginable to your site, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No website is immune from being attacked by hackers.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your blog invisible to hackers and botnets.
To learn more, go here:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your web pages …
(WP SEO Plugin – Yoast SEO)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your site’s search engine optimization. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google and Bing to find, classify and index, it also gives you control over how your content is presented to Google’s search results and social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content with friends and members of their social networks can help boost traffic to your site, especially if you publish great content that adds real value to readers.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their site using WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social features to their site using free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social plugins let you select which social sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which users can unlock by liking your page.
Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your website, many themes also include built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site navigation structure for better indexing, add tracking snippets, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes can be configured for improved traffic results)
With a number of WordPress themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your website is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic Automation – Additional Configuration Areas
Last (but by no means least) in the web traffic configuration process, are the areas that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong as more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you are making money online (or are planning to), you need to ensure that your site remains compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business practices online.
(Is Your Website Legally Compliant?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, see this article:
WordPress Post Categories & Tags
Post categories and tags help improve traffic by improving your site’s SEO.
(Categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to classify and index your web pages.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your site’s post tags and categories should be set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Phases.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s tags and categories have been set up correctly to deliver optimal benefits and results.
Visitor Site Map
A site map that lists all of your posts and pages is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external tools discover more of your web content …
(Site Map – great for visitors and beneficial for web traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. Although search engines like Google can index your site just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
404 Page Not Found – Don’t Forget To Configure This Too!
When visitors searching online for your website type in the wrong web address into their browser or click on a hyperlink pointing to a destination on your website that no longer exists, they are greeted with a 404 error page …
(A WordPress 404 Page)
Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to recover web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up in your web server, there are WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Stage – Summary
Once you have your website or blog expertly configured and fully set up, all you then have to do to automatically bring more traffic is add fresh content consistently.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different elements and web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The kind of expertise required to perform this process can take many web professionals months to learn.
Once you have expertly configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is explained in the next article in our series.
This is the end of Part Three
To keep reading this article, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of an article series designed to help site owners learn how to grow their business online inexpensively and drive traffic sustainably with a WordPress website and proven marketing strategies that are easy and quick to implement.
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